


S1 & A5-Frozen Together

by thudworm



Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2019 [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Huddling For Warmth, M/M, snark as a cover for UST, that's it that's the fic, there's only one bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-14 06:27:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18047288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thudworm/pseuds/thudworm
Summary: Thwarting Loki's latest attempt at world domination leaves two Avengers stranded in a frozen wasteland.





	1. S1- Loki Laufeyson

Tony was really getting fed up with Asgard being either unwilling or unable to keep Loki contained where he could do no damage. It probably just wasn’t high enough on their priority list, given that Loki’s desire to take over the world was focussed on Earth, rather than threatening Asgard, but Tony knew better than to suggest that to Thor.

This attempt at world domination was centred in outback Australia, with intel from SHIELD suggesting that Loki's plan this time was pulling an Elsa, complete with tower, and creating a knockoff Jotunheim. Why he was doing it in the middle of nowhere was a mystery, but Tony wasn’t going to waste brainpower on Loki’s crazy logic. 

There were only four Avengers to take down Loki this time; Black Widow and Hawkeye had been assigned on a SHIELD mission a week ago that they still weren’t back from. Privately, even though it would leave them short handed, Tony was glad Clint wasn't here for this one. The haunted look in his eyes that lingered for days after encountering Loki was concerning to all of the other Avengers. 

Of course, the lack of Clint and Nat meant that Captain Tightass would be riding his ass even more than usual today. And now was really not a good time to be thinking about Rogers’ ass, or Rogers riding his. The Glare of Disapproval he’d earn himself for saying the wrong out loud would not be fun, and he would deserve it. For once. 

“So, what’s the plan here, oh fearless leader?” Tony asked. He landed the Quinjet a safe distance away from Loki’s ice spire.

Steve didn’t respond to him, instead asking Thor, “how is he doing this, and how do we get him to undo it?”

“Loki likely has obtained a Jotun artifact which he is using to cause this transformation. Out first objective must be to prevent his further use of the object. Once the influence is removed the lands here should return to their natural state after several days, and we should have no more difficulty than usual at apprehending him for return to Asgard.”

“Dr. Banner? I think this might be a Code Green mission.”

“I was afraid you were going to say that,’ Bruce replied with a sigh as he stripped out of his shirt and pants, leaving him wearing only the stretchy Hulk-proof shorts Tony had designed for him. He started shivering almost immediately, and Tony made a mental note to work on expanding the range of clothes Bruce had for situations such as this. 

Loki noticed them immediately as they exited the quinjet and sent them scattering by using what appeared to be a staff with a jewel on top to send a burst of frozen power their way. It hit the quinjet and Tony really hoped it hadn’t done any serious damage. The last thing they needed was to be stranded out here in the middle of this frozen hellscape. 

There were more pressing concerns to worry about at the moment, though, like avoiding the next bursts of power Loki was attempting to hit them with. Iron Man and Thor had both taken to the sky, Hulk had come out to play, which left Cap as the most vulnerable member of the team currently. 

Thor was taking the brunt of Loki’s attention by attempting to talk him down and “be reasonable, brother.” They all knew it was a futile effort, but it was keeping Loki distracted enough to hopefully have some chance of taking him down the hard way.

Loki had constructed the tower in such a way as to to provide himself with plenty of cover, making it next to impossible for Tony to get a clear shot at him. And whatever the hell it was made of was far more resistant than normal ice to his repulsors.

Hulk seemed to be trying to bring the spire down from its base, like felling a tall tree, but he seemed to be having about as much success at it as Tony and Thor were with their attempts. From his location in the sky Tony couldn’t see what the Captain was doing, but he doubted he was having any better luck with it. 

“Nothing Hulk or I am doing is having any effect here, Cap,” Tony called out after several minutes of ineffective repulsor blasting and smashing. “We need to try something else.”

“What if we get Hulk to climb to the top like King Kong? Once he’s up there he might be able to grab a hold of Loki, and he’s the least likely to be harmed even if Loki manages get a successful hit in.”

Tony took his mind off the fight for a fraction of a second to marvel at Captain America being the one to make a movie reference in the middle of a battle, instead of telling him or Clint off for it. That one moment of inattention was all it took for Loki to get a lucky shot in. 

The blast took out his left gauntlet and half the stabilising thrusters on that side of the armour. The sudden loss of balance sent Tony into a tumbling freefall which ended with him crashing into a fortunately located snow bank.

“Iron Man! Report!” Cap demanded.

“Not injured, just grounded. Doubt I’m gonna be much use from here on out.”

Hulk had now reached the top of Loki’s tower, and the ice formations Loki had used to shield himself from Iron Man were no match for Hulk. With a surprising amount of dexterity from such large hands Hulk was able to knock the staff from Loki’s grasp and grab hold of him by the waist. Hulk made his way back down the tower, Loki clutched in his hand like a rag doll. 

Hulk all but threw Loki at Thor, and it took no time at all for Thor to have Loki bound by the enchanted manacles he pulled from somewhere under that cape. 

“Well, that was easier than I was expecting it to be. How about next time Loki tries this shit we just send Jolly Green in, and the rest of us can stay home where it’s warmer.” Tony suggested. 

“HULK COLD,” was Hulk’s only response to that before he took off running in a seemingly random direction. Tony hoped that Hulk knew what he was doing and wouldn’t leave Bruce stranded too far from civilization. 

“Guess it’s just the three of us on the flight home.” Tony said.

“Nay, my friends. I must return Loki to Asgard immediately to prevent him from attempting to carry out any more of his schemes. I shall try to impress upon the All-Father the importance of improving the containment of Loki’s prison.” 

Thor called out to Heimdall, there was a bright flash of light, and then all that was left was a Bifrost rune on the ground where they had been standing. 

“And then there were two. Let’s get out of here, Cap, before you end up taking another 70-year nap.”

Rogers didn’t respond, just lead the way onboard the quinjet. Tony followed a few steps behind, close enough to hear his sudden swearing.

“Language!” Tony couldn’t resist the urge to yank Rogers’ chain, even when it meant something had to have gone seriously wrong to cause him to swear. 

If looks could kill, Tony would be a dead man right now, but Rogers just cut straight to the point. “The engines are dead.”

Tony pushed past him to check the instrument readouts for himself, and found nothing but bad news. The torrent of foul language Tony let loose put Rogers’ earlier cursing to shame. “That first shot of Loki’s froze them solid. And there’s nothing I can do about it!”

“I take it the same goes for your armour?”

“Yes. I’ve sent out a distress call to SHIELD, but if this is anything like the last time we faced Loki there’s no guarantee the signal got through. As much as it pains me to say it, until the magic dissipates in it’s own time or Fury sends someone to rescue us, I think we’re stuck here.”


	2. A5- Huddling for Warmth

Fantastic. Tony was stuck out here in the middle of nowhere frozen wasteland with only Steve Rogers for company. There was no way this was going to end well. Rogers only tolerated his company at the best of times, which this was definitely not. 

“We should get ourselves prepared to last this out for a couple of days,” Steve said. 

“Start looking through the supplies, see what we’ve got,” Tony suggested. “I’m gonna see what I can manage from here.” Tony sat in the pilot’s seat, with some difficulty given the armour, and got to work.

The engines were definitely dead, but there was enough juice in the batteries to get the hatch closed and keep the cold out. The lights wouldn’t be a problem for them either, but having the flashlights in the emergency kits as backup was a relief. 

Tony also set the distress call to SHIELD to continue transmitting on repeat, just in case there was interference from Loki’s magic that would slowly dissipate and allow a message through later. Stupid goddamn magic. 

Steve joined him in the cockpit with an armload of emergency rations and a few bottles of water. Tony was shameless in digging through the rations to find the least objectionable flavours, but even those couldn’t be described as tasty by an stretch of the imagination. 

“Remind me when we get home to talk to Bruce about coming up with a better alternative to these.” Tony had been more thinking out loud than specifically talking to Steve, but he seemed interested in what Tony had to say.

Tony rambled for a while about the possible other uses for decent emergency food supplies, like disaster relief efforts, and potential changes to suggest to Bruce.

As Steve was comparing them to the C- and K-rations he was used to from his time in the Army, Tony thought about how this was the first time in a while they’d had a normal, friendly conversation instead of being at each other's throats about something. It was nice. 

The temperature was starting to drop inside the quinjet and Tony was feeling the chill. Wearing just the undersuit wasn’t the greatest thing for keeping warm, but staying inside the armour wasn’t really an option. Trying to sit or lay down in it for more than half an hour was uncomfortable, doubly so with the damage it had taken. 

It was getting dark outside. It had been late evening New York time when they were called to Assemble, Tony hadn’t slept the night before because he was too busy in the workshop, and now, without any caffeine available to stave off the tiredness, his eyes were feeling heavy. 

There was a stretcher on board the quinjet in case one of them was seriously injured and needed to be medevaced, but it was more often used when Clint wanted to take a nap than its intended purpose. It probably wouldn’t be the most comfortable night’s sleep, but Tony had definitely slept on worse, and he was willing to bet the same went for Steve. 

“I can’t believe I’m the one saying this, but I think it’s best if we got some sleep,” Tony said.

“You go ahead and take the bed. I’m fine sitting here, I don’t need much sleep anyway.”

“Cut the self-sacrificing bullshit. What, you’re afraid to snuggle with a dude? Don’t worry, I know how to keep my hands to myself. Your virtue will remain unbesmirched.”

Steve sighed. “You’re not going to let this go until I agree, are you?”

“Nope,” Tony replied with a grin. “Besides, it makes sense. We can help keep each other warm instead of freezing separately.”

Tony started looking through the various storage compartments for the blankets he knew had to be somewhere, and eventually found them on a shelf above the medical supplies. 

Tony flopped onto the stretcher that was serving as their bed and Steve moved to join him. “Uh uh uh. Not happening. I don't care how comfortable it is for you wearing it, there’s no way in hell in staying cuddled up to that much leather and kevlar all night.” 

Steve pulled a face at that. “What else am I supposed to wear?”

“That locker over there,” Tony said, pointing, “has a bunch of clothes in it for when Bruce has a case of sudden Hulk. Might be a tight fit, but it’s warmer than nothing.”

Steve went digging through the clothes, and decided on the largest t-shirt and pair of sweats available, which still looked like they would be incredibly tight on his super soldier frame. They were fortunate that Bruce tended to buy clothes on the looser side. He took Tony by surprise by stripping out of his uniform without hesitation to change into Bruce’s clothes. At Tony’s questioning look Steve just shrugged. “It’s not like I had much room for modesty in the Army.” 

“Definitely wasn’t complaining about the view. Not that your outfit leaves much to the imagination anyway.” Tony threw back the blankets he’d layered over himself to invite Steve to join him. 

“If we’re doing this to preserve body heat, I think it’s best if I’m behind you, my front to your back. Since I’m taller than you there’ll be less heat lost that way.”

“That’s not going to work for me. Either I’m the big spoon, or we do this facing each other with full chest-to-chest contact.” 

“Why?” Steve’s question was more curious than demanding, which made Tony want to answer truthfully, rather than with sarcasm or bluster. 

“You know that big hunk of metal and glass I have lodged in my sternum?” Tony asked. “When it’s cold like this, it’s a great way for me to lose heat rapidly. Which I’d really prefer to avoid, since it tends to make it hurt like hell.”

“Okay.” Steve relented with no further argument, which surprised Tony. He joined him on the bed and lay down with his back to Tony. There was a few minutes of uncomfortable shifting and moving as they each tried to settle in to an okay position to sleep in such a narrow bed. 

“This thing really wasn’t meant to fit two people at once, was it?” Tony commented once they’d managed to arrange themselves as well as was possible under the circumstances. They ended up with Steve wrapped in Tony’s arms, pressed as close together as possible with the layers of clothes between them.

Steve huffed a laugh. “You’re the one who insisted I join you up here. You don’t get to complain, especially when huddling this way was your idea too.”

There was no sign of the insomnia that sometimes plagued Tony tonight, and he dropped off to sleep much easier than he had expected given the situation. 

Tony was dragged back consciousness by the feeling of Steve shifting in his arms. He gave no indication he was awake yet, wanting to enjoy the moment for just a little longer, because it wasn’t like he was going to chance like this again. 

“The comm panel is beeping at us. I think SHIELD must have finally gotten our message.”  

It was only when Steve moved to sit up that Tony realised how his body had reacted to being so up close and personal with Steve. He jerked away from Steve and managed to roll himself off the side of the bed, landing hard on his ass. 

“Are you okay?” Steve asked.

“Fine, fine. Nothing bruised but my pride. Forgot where I was for a moment and didn’t realise the bed was so small.” Tony was absolutely not going to be the one to call attention to the awkward state at hand. It was probably too much to hope for that Steve hadn’t noticed, but they were both adults who knew the appropriate response was to ignore it. 

“Do you need a hand?” Steve asked him, and there was no way Steve meant that the way it sounded, Tony just needed to get his mind out of the gutter. 

Tony waved him off and climbed back onto the bed. He considered finding a nice snowbank to bury himself in to escape the uncomfortable situation, but that wouldn’t accomplish anything. He did wrap himself up in the blankets, though, so he didn’t feel quite so exposed. 

Apparently being stranded in the middle of nowhere in a frozen wasteland wasn’t an excuse to take a day off from a supersoldiers morning exercise routine. Tony mumbled something about being tied just watching him at Steve, who just laughed at him and didn’t try to talk him into joining in for once. 

Steve was still wearing the clothes he’d borrowed from Bruce to sleep in, which looked like they’d been painted on. As Steve bent and stretched it was very obvious that Steve was in the same predicament as Tony, standing at attention so to speak.

It was only when Steve’s face turned brick red that Tony realised he had actually said that out loud accidentally. “Please ignore that, I have no brain-to-mouth filter when I haven’t had my morning coffee. I’m gonna save you the trouble of rejecting me by smothering myself with the pillow now.”

“What if I don’t want to ignore it?”

Tony stared blankly at Steve and waited for his brain to reboot. “I must have hit my head when I landed on the floor. I can’t have just heard what I thought I heard.”

“If you heard me say that I want to give whatever this,” Steve gestured between himself and Tony, “is a try, then you heard me perfectly.” 

There was only one response Tony could give in reply to being offered what he’d wanted for months. 

“Okay, but I’d really prefer not to be caught with my pants down by SHIELD if we’re doing this, so…” Tony trailed off. 

Steve hit the button on the control panel to play the message from SHIELD. “Avengers, be advised SHIELD has received your distress call and are en route to your location. ETA is 3 hours and 47 minutes.”

“That sounds like plenty of time. Objection withdrawn.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 2 (square A5- Huddling for Warmth) will be posted next Friday


End file.
